East Park Village

Revitilzation Continues in Kennesaw with the City’s Largest Land Assemblage Ever

The Meridian Real Estate Group with Keller Williams Realty Signature Partners worked on behalf of its client, Sanctuary Companies, a Georgia based real-estate development company, to assemble 65 parcels of property located along the Cherokee Street Redevelopment Corridor in Kennesaw, Georgia. Sanctuary Companies along with its partner Varden Properties recently closed on the properties. The $280 million mixed-use development, Eastpark Village, will transform the north gateway to downtown Kennesaw into a vibrant mixed-use community.

Eastpark Village, designed by award-winning architects Miller Architecture, will consist of 850 residential units, approximately 300,000 square feet of commercial, retail, and office space. A Village Green will be surrounded by restaurants, open markets, and residential living. A network of sidewalks and strategically placed parks will connect to Historic Downtown Kennesaw via a 10-foot multi-use trail. Groundbreaking will take place in March 2019 with an estimated three-year completion goal.

City of Kennesaw Zoning Administrator, Darryl Simmons, stated that “this is the largest land assemblage in the history of Kennesaw in terms of the number of parcels with individual owners assembled”. He said the City views this project, along with the Revival on Main in downtown Kennesaw, and the Kennesaw Marketplace at the intersection of Cobb Parkway and Barrett Parkway, as catalyst projects that will change the direction of Kennesaw in a positive way and help to revitalize the entire area.

Mr. Simmons explained that the City identified the area along Cherokee Street stretching from I-75 to downtown Kennesaw as a Redevelopment Corridor Zone, and subsequently adopted an overlay Zoning Ordinance and Form-Based Code to encourage redevelopment of the area. Mr. Simmons has seen significant revitalization efforts along the corridor, including older residential subdivisions and commercial businesses relocating into the area since the adoption of the Ordinance.

“Obviously this is the largest assemblage of residential property that Kennesaw has had; you’re talking over 60 parcels in a small area,” Mr. Simmons said. “There’s a lot of ways it could have gone wrong. There’s a lot of things that could have derailed the project, but because of The Meridian Real Estate Group’s diligent work hitting the bricks every day to keep the project going forward, the assemblage part, which is the heavy lifting, was possible.”

Land assemblages are one of the areas of specialty for The Meridian Real Estate Group. “This one was monumental,” said Tony Morris, Meridian’s founder, “it took us three years to assemble the parcels necessary to put it together, and because of our efforts this will be a legacy project for us, our client, and the community.”